


Aurora

by perplexed (orphan_account)



Series: Smosh Hybrid AU [1]
Category: Smosh, Smosh Games
Genre: Gen, Hybrid AU, Hybrids, Smosh Hybrid AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-21
Updated: 2015-01-21
Packaged: 2018-03-08 11:59:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3208382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/perplexed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>When the Aurora Borealis can be seen worldwide, what could it mean? The end of the world? Mass Hysteria? No, something far more strange...</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Aurora

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to write a Smosh Hybrid AU, so here's this monster of backstory and the like to start off a new series on my account! Everything else I write in this universe will be polysmosh, but I wanted to write a backstory anyone could use for their own fanworks should they want to, without shipping involved!

Seeing the aurora borealis below a certain point usually wasn’t anything more than a pretty light show, but for it to come down as far as California raised a few eyebrows. Meteorologists assured the public that everything was okay and that it was just another coronal mass ejection from the sun, but not everyone was happy to sleep easy on it and, when it happened for the second night in a row, rumours started to fly. Some people very loudly and proudly proclaimed that it was aliens, whilst some told of the end of all days and the shifting of the magnetic poles.

Ian, however, wasn’t one to buy into such crackpot ideology. He was content to let the pretty lights in the sky take their course while he got on with life. He wasn’t the kind of person who believed that the big scary lights in the sky were aliens trying to contact us, nor was he the kind of person to be scared by a perfectly natural, if somewhat unusual, occurrence.

He got to the Smosh Games studios about an hour before they were due to start filming things, just so he had enough time to chill out and relax. God only knew that moving house to LA had taken its toll on him, though he had been feeling even more tired than usual lately and his pulse seemed to be racing a lot. Ian put it down to a sickness, maybe the flu, or his consumption of caffeine.

Sidling over to Joven’s desk, Ian picked up a leaf of the salad the other man was eating and happily shoved it into his mouth, making himself at home after a chorus of ‘hey’’s when everyone noticed his arrival nearly gave him a heart attack. He flopped onto the couch next to Anthony and pulled his 3DS from his backpack, noting the dark circles underneath Anthony’s eyes.

“So, what’s up with you? You look like someone blacked your eyes for you,” Ian pointed out, still idly chewing on the salad leaf for far longer than he normally would. Noticing that, he made a point of swallowing and again blamed it on moving house making him go a little loopy.

“Huh?” Anthony’s head jolted up and he sighed. “Oh, yeah. Can’t sleep.” He stretched and yawned, nodding over at Sohinki, who was leaning on his desk, fast asleep. “Sohinki’s having the opposite problem,” Anthony joked.

Ian laughed, and that was the end of that, though he couldn’t help but notice that everyone was behaving strangely in the studios that day. Mari was very restless and kept stretching her arms, Sohinki was sleeping at every given opportunity, Anthony was nodding off as well, Joven was almost bouncing off the walls with hyperactivity, Wes had a ‘killer headache’ and Flitz had headed home after throwing up earlier that morning. All in all, it was a strange and very tense day - Ian just hoped that it didn’t persevere over the next few days when him and Anthony were there to film some stuff for upcoming Game Bangs and Gametimes.

\---

When he fell into bed that night, Ian was a little peeved to realise that his heart was racing again - he’d steered clear of caffeine all day, only drinking juice and a lemonade - and he couldn’t understand why. Making a mental note to see a doctor when he had time, Ian turned his back to the window on account of the lights still dancing in the sky above and fell asleep.

He was restless all night, kept tossing and turning over and over, and when he did manage to sleep he had vivid nightmares which woke him up anyway. At around four, he woke up again with a migraine and ended up getting up to get a drink and use the bathroom. This would usually have been eventless, but something possessed him to look into the mirror above the sink while washing his hands. He noticed that, just barely, there were two nubs of bone or something similar poking up from his hair, and then panned up to the far more noticeable ears perched atop his head.

Of course, he had the reaction everyone would have to this and almost fell over backwards. Was it his skull? It felt like it wasn’t linked, but then what could it be? Was someone playing a very elaborate trick on him? More to the point, where had his normal human ears gone? After that, he couldn’t just get back into bed and sleep. On an off-chance, he texted Anthony to see if he was up and, to his surprise, he got an almost instant response.

‘I’m more awake than I’ve ever been and I don’t know why’ came the response. Ian replied simply with ‘I think there’s something wrong’. He lifted his hand up to touch the nubs again, still trying to figure out what they were and why they were there. ‘You’re not alone there, I don’t know why but I really want to eat raw meat right now, something just feels wrong. Oh, and I have fucking EARS where I shouldn’t and a TAIL.’ Anthony replied, then straight afterwards texted again with ‘Turn the news on, right now. We’re not alone.’

Ian padded to his living room and turned on the local news channel. He was confronted with a large BREAKING NEWS banner with scrolling text under it. It was too early for him to try and read the speedily scrolling text, so he chose to turn the volume up instead. He paced around the room while listening.

“We’ve still got reports coming in about residents across the Americas and further afield experiencing what can only be described as unusual symptoms, including growth of animal-like organs and appendages. If you are affected, you’re urged to stay inside your houses and avoid contact with the unaffected. The Secretary of Health and Public Services had this to say about the incidents.”

Ian quickly tuned out, just glad he wasn’t totally alone. He was concerned though, and honed back in on what the evidently unaffected man on the TV had to say. He dropped onto the sofa and yelped in pain, realising very quickly that, fucking hell, he had a stubby, fluffy tail as well, which he’d just managed to bend the wrong way.

“We’re urging the public not to panic. It isn’t clear what has caused these mutations, and they aren’t thought to be contagious, but we’re urging you to stay away from the unaffected in case other, more harmful, symptoms manifest. Calm is the key word here - a lot of people are affected and hospitals are unable to accommodate many patients - unless you are experiencing life threatening symptoms please do not call your doctors or the emergency services.”

Ian picked his phone up again after getting comfortable, (which was harder than he imagined it would be with a tail attached to his spine,) and texted Anthony a simple ‘Well, fuck.’

Another few hours passed before most people Ian knew woke up, but as much as Ian kept an eye on the news not a thing changed. They were still telling people to stay inside and not to have contact with the unaffected, but no one was offering any explanations as to what had happened or why. People came and went on the news channel, offering their own explanations, but not one official was saying anything about the whole thing. That made Ian a little disconcerted if he was honest.

He received a text at half past seven from Joven. It said ‘Are you affected?’. Ian toyed with saying no, but it was hard to hide the big dopey ears that hung from his head, and who could forget the little nubs of bone as well? So, instead, he sighed and replied with a ‘Yeah’. Not five minutes later, Joven was calling Ian, panting frantically on the other end of the line.

“I fucking woke up and I have dog ears and a tail, what the fuck?!” Joven squeaked, obviously not a fan of his new adornments. “And I’m not the only one, thank fuck! Mari woke up with an itchy back only to find that she’d sprouted wings in the middle of the night, and, shit.”

“Calm down,” Ian said, though he’d spent much of the morning panicking himself. What the hell were him and Anthony going to do? What if this became a social stigma thing? What if it was dangerous?

“I went on Twitter and millions of people are affected, more are than aren’t it seems.” Joven was still almost panting, panicking. “Do- Do you know anything? About why this happened or what it is?”

“No, I know as much as anyone else does right now, which is nothing.” Ian rubbed his hand over his face, scratching at his beard. “Do you need me to come over?” Ian asked, concerned about how worked up Joven seemed to be. “Or I can call Anthony, he’s closer to you than me anyway…?”

“Would you come over?” Joven asked quietly. “I’m just… Really scared of what’s happening right now.”

“Of course. See you soon.” Ian put the phone down and ran his hand through the front of his hair, patting it down until it lay flat against his forehead again.

\---

Ian made it to Joven’s in about half an hour. The streets were deserted but he took the long way - driving always cleared his head. Anthony had been in touch with Sohinki, who’d woken up with a long, almost floor-scraping tail and ears atop his head too, and Sohinki had spoken to everyone else that morning and it seemed they were all affected. Ian had ended up orchestrating for them all to meet at Joven’s place.

Ian had tried - honest to god, really tried - to hide his ears, but even beanie hats weren’t hiding them and hoodies just served to irritate the sensitive nubs on his head. He didn’t know what he was expecting when Joven opened the door, but Ian was certain that it wasn’t Joven in his boxers with large, perky ears and a long, swishing tail. He was ushered in and found Anthony and Sohinki already there.

Placing his hands on his hips, Ian sighed.

“Well, fuck,” he started, but couldn’t finish the thought. He was too panicked, still, to form coherent thought, and his heart was pounding away in his chest again. “What even _are_ we?”

\---

It took a week for the government to bring out a proper statement out about the mutations. Apparently, they were caused by magnetic changes in the atmosphere, or that was the official line at least. Ian had never been one to believe in the supernatural, but something told him that there was more to this whole thing than anyone was letting on. They were permanent changes to the DNA and, thusly, appeared to be passed down to newborn children as well in the way that, well, any parental DNA is.

Ian was far from thrilled at the prospect of having horns, ears and a tail for his whole life, but after seeing some people on the news who had been stuck with unfortunate things, like cow udders, he decided that maybe it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

The crew had made their way to the Smosh Games offices to film a video about the new ‘additions’ to their channel - he was sure everyone knew by then about the changes, since Instagram had veritably blown up with pictures of practically everyone in the world with access to a camera phone, but they wanted to make it official. There was also already a movement to call people with mutations ‘hybrids’, which was a lot nicer than being called a ‘mutant’, so Ian had to agree with their message and proposed that they publicly backed it in the video, something which they all agreed on, for once.

They explained what, exactly, they were. Anthony was a Serval hybrid; Mari, a swan; Sohinki, a Red Panda; Lasercorn, a Monitor Lizard; Ian, a White-Tailed Deer; Wes, a Horse; Jovenshire, an Alaskan Malamute; and Flitz, a Black Panther. It had taken a lot of googling and help from friends to figure out what they all were, and some were happier about their hybridisation than others.

They uploaded the video the same day, after Wes and Flitz quickly edited it, (though, Wes did far more editing than Flitz, who was fighting to try and keep his glasses on now he had “no goddamn ears”,) and were surprised by the positive response. It seemed that most of their fans had been affected as well, which took a lot of the worry from Ian’s mind about making videos with his new additions.

\---

Life was going to be very strange from then on, Ian could tell, but he wasn’t sure anything could top waking up with new ears and a tail.


End file.
